St. Edward shines on Monday Night Football
The St. Edward homecoming dance had taken place 48 hours earlier at Villa Olivia in Bartlett.
The king and queen had long since been crowned.
Of course, there was still this little matter of a football game to be played.
Because stormy weather forced a postponement on Friday and Guerin was unavailable to play Saturday, the St. Edward football team experienced Monday Night Football for the first time.
The Green Wave took well to the experience in a 56-0 blowout in a Metro Suburban Red matchup in Elgin.
Senior quarterback Anthony Holte completed 16 of 21 passing attempts for 327 yards and 6 touchdowns, both career highs.
"I'm happy that my line was there all night to block for me," Holte said of seniors Luke Breier and Andy Cielak and juniors Luke Sauceda, Owen Gill, and Tristan Merlin. "And my wide receivers made plays."
Holte's top target was sure-handed Zeke Rolando. The 6-foot-3, 150-pound junior made 8 catches for 188 yards and 3 touchdowns. He had 3 touchdown receptions in the game's first 14 minutes and 32 seconds as the Wave raced to a 22-0 lead.
The first Holte-Rolando connection came on a broken play that was supposed to go to the left side. Instead, the quarterback ended up rolling right and pinpointing Rolando in the back right corner of the end zone with a 15-yard scoring pass.
"Anthony has always talked with coach about how we're trying to extend plays," Zeke said. "I just wanted to try to get open and help Anthony out."
Rolando made things happen on their second connection. He caught a 10-yard pass, broke a tackle and raced up the right sideline for a 35-yard touchdown.
The duo's third scoring play was clutch. On fourth-and-22 from the Guerin 34-yard line, Rolando slipped behind the defense and hauled a pass in with his fingertips.
"I knew if I threw it up to him, he would come down with it because he always makes big plays and makes me proud," Holte said.
St. Edward (3-2, 3-0) gained 531 total yards compared to 51 for Guerin (1-4, 0-3). Rolando, Clem McCullough and Liam Pomeroy had interceptions to help St. Edward win the turnover battle 5-1.
"I thought our kids executed a lot of things, a couple of different run plays that we don't usually run," St. Edward coach Mike Rolando said. "Whatever they give us, we have to learn to learn to do something else. I think we have enough in that we can usually counter whatever somebody is trying to do to stop us."
Junior running back Joe Sacco rushed for 98 yards, including a 52-yard touchdown. He caught two balls for 34 yards, highlighted by a 13-yard scoring grab.
Pomeroy's 18-yard, second-quarter touchdown catch gave St. Edward a 42-0 halftime lead. McCullough added a 15-yard touchdown reception and junior Blake Busto rumbled 29 yards to the end zone to cap the scoring.
St. Edward welcomes Chicago Christian to Greg True Field Friday in a showdown for first place in the MSC Red.
"We have 4-1 Chicago Christian coming in here in four days so we have to get ready to play on Friday," Mike Rolando said.